Tomorrow I'm doing my first bit of load testing for my .308 hunting load for this year. Season starts this saturday so as usual I'm way behind but I have lot of time this week so I hope to get it ready in time to hunt with. Posting this to get advice and catalog the results of my process & the discussion in case they are helpful to someone in future.
Mold I'm using is a 311-175 NOE based off the saeco 315, I cast up about 150 or so bullets 3 weeks ago to let them age and I'm just sizing/lubing in small batches out of that as I test. Bore slugs .3085-.3095 so I'm sizing .311. Brass is federal match brass since I have a bunch of it, all of it at least once fired in this gun.
First batch of 20 I prepped yesterday: I lubed with white label 50/50, I'm hoping that gets me up to hunting velocity since that's what I had in the sizer at the moment and I figure softer is better during the cold of hunting season, if it works. Can also use white label 2500 without too much trouble as I have another sizer already set up with that. Sized to .311 and seated/lightly crimped at the band that leaves 3 lube grooves showing outside the case. Lubing all but the front 2 grooves, could lube more if needed but wanted to avoid having to worry about too much gunk getting on the exposed part of the bullets since they are for hunting. Here's a link to the mold if it helps: http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...ear1s0fajlv5k7
Gas checked with gator gas checks, starting with the base load of sr4759 (believe it was 21.5gr but manual is out in the shop) and will work up towards the max in 1 gr increments until I see accuracy drop off or get leading.
Rifle is a 50's era savage 99 with a pretty short throat
Any thoughts on lube choice? Temps here during hunting season run 0-50F, part of the reason I'm waiting late to test it. Any thoughts on what muzzle velocity I need to reach in order for this bullet to be effective on whitetail deer at 25-150 yards? Alloy is 49/49/2 pure/coww/tin, air cooled.
Thanks,
Andy